Seeing a new project
by Giuseppe Mastromatteo means entering a microcosm that flows with evocations and artifices; within, a specific portion of the human body becomes both the surface and medium which exists autonomously and is there to be explored.
E_01, Eyedentikit (2017) by Giuseppe MastromatteoTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
This was true of his previous works such as "Indepensense" and "Homogenic", and is even more evident in the brand new "EYEDENTIKIT", in which the artist becomes the protagonist, and puts parts of himself into his musings on human identity. An extremely important part, namely the eyes and the gaze, which represent the essence, the site of creation for every photographer.
This work presents a series of portraits. The evolution of the portrait genre in photography has taught us that there’s a mutual relationship between the subject being photographed and the photographer; a sort of resemblance between the two participants on set. Often one can make out features of the artists themselves in the final image, as though a part of the latter were faithfully reproduced, like a visual testimony of their encounter with the other.
In Mastromatteo’s photography, that “as though” translates, through expert manipulation and a refined conceptual ability, into the tangible prospect of amplifying that resemblance, turning it into a perfect union between the subject being immortalized and the photographer.This artist’s proven talent for combining technique, aesthetics and theory places us before a growing archive of images; the immediate result is one of identity theft, a continual removal of other people’s gazes, obsessively replaced with the photographer’s own eyes. In doing so, he offers a series of self-portraits, represented by the only portion of his being that he decides to reveal.
Far from being self-referential, this mechanism employed by the photographer becomes a device for making visible that which is truly pointless and superfluous: the staging of the human being, deluded that he or she is living his own life, implementing his own originality day after day. This artist’s action disrupts the individual nature of each subject, about which many questions remain open, with a single answer: our identities lie not in the image we present, but in that which others project onto us; and so we exist insofar as those eyes look at us; for as long as the camera or video camera are running and recording us.Mastromatteo’s eyes, multiplied infinitely upon our own faces, invite us to leave behind the sphere of the appearance, so lacking in substance, and suggest that the essential things in life lie elsewhere.
HO_01, Homogenic (2014) by Giuseppe MastromatteoTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
I_32, Indepensense III (2012) by Giuseppe MastromatteoTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Giuseppe Mastromatteo was born in Busto Arsizio (Italy) on 6 August 1970.
Giuseppe Mastromatteo has been working as an artist for fifteen years. Subsequent to his important working experiences in the music business as sound engineer and musician, he approached the world of artchoosing photography as his medium of expression; he continued his studies, graduating from the Accademia diComunicazione di Milan with a degree in Art Direction. Since 2005, his works have been at the centre of the attention of critics with in-depth articles published in art catalogues and trade journals. His works have been exhibited in art galleries, museums and trade fairs on different premises, such as: Milan, Paris, London, Miami,Beijing, Basel, Istanbul and New York where he lived for three years.
In 2006 he was appointed Art Director of the Milan Triennale, for the launching of the Bovisa Triennale and other contemporary art exhibitions. His present post is Chief Creative Officer for the Ogilvy Italia communications agency, while contemporarily dedicating his time to his own artistic research conducted between Milan and New York. "HUMANSCAPE" is his first editorial monograph.
I_35, Indepensense III (2012) by Giuseppe MastromatteoTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
I_01, Indepensense I (2009) by Giuseppe MastromatteoTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
This virtual exhibition was brought together with 29 arts in progress gallery on the occasion of the Exhibition "HUMANSCAPE" curated by Giovanni Pelloso visitable from the 04.10.18 to the 18.11.18. Special graditudes to Benedetta Donato author of the texts.
Discover more here.
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